Ok – I’m going to go there… Everyone is talking about them… WEIGHT LOSS JABS!
First off – I 100% think there is a place for them and it’s important for me to say; for those using them, those not using them, those curious about using them – I am here to help you all. There’s no judgement here! But what I will say is that if you are using them, the need to work with a PT is probably even greater….
Why?
Because GLP-1 injections can reduce appetite and support fat loss, but they cannot imitate exercise or build muscle for you. There is no jab for that (yet?!). So please bear in mind that whilst losing fat can be great, losing muscle is absolutely not so we need to do everything we can to preserve and maximise it.
So, I want to help disseminate what I’ve learned recently and also share my views on how I can work with you if you are considering using them, already using them, or considering reducing / stopping your dose…
So…
Part 1 – how do they actually work?
I’ve been doing my research as I’ve wanted to understand this properly…. Here’s a very high level synopsis of what I’ve learned.
- GLP-1 drugs were first used to treat Type 2 Diabetes and the first version was approved in 2007 (originally discovered in the saliva of a monster lizard – WTF?!).
- Most weight loss injections (Wegovy, Mounjaro, Ozempic, etc) work in a very similar way (at a basic level). They include varying doses of a chemical (hormone) called GLP-1 (Glucagon-like Peptide-1) but they contain slightly different versions and levels of it.
In order to understand how the drugs work, we need to know what happens naturally within the body…
- The body produces the GLP-1 hormone naturally when we eat; its purpose is to stimulate the pancreas to release insulin to help us break down sugars in the food we’ve just consumed.
- A secondary function of GLP-1 is that it tells the brain that we have had enough food. It’s almost holding up a ‘closed’ sign… ‘No more food for now please, we are busy processing what you’ve just thrown down your neck!’
- As these sugars get broken down, another chemical signal is released to remove GLP-1 from the body. It’s a quick, efficient, cyclical process, meaning we are often hungry at various times throughout the day when each of these cycles ends.
How do the injections work (simplified version!)?
- The injections contain a modified version of GLP-1, which essentially mimics the same actions as the naturally produced hormone.
- Clever scientists have modified the hormone so it is resistant to being broken down quickly after eating meaning it stays in the body longer.
- The increased availability of GLP-1 tells the brain to trigger the pancreas to release insulin as it thinks it needs to break down sugars from food recently consumed (stabilising blood sugar in the long term)
- The brain is also constantly receiving a ‘digestive system is now closed’ signal, which reduces hunger, removes food noise and suppresses appetite.
In a nutshell, this is how the injections work to aid weight loss. I have simplified this massively, but I hope it’s helpful! In Part 2 we will explore how and why it’s so important to eat & train properly whilst taking these drugs…
